Battery & Electrification Technology - May/June 2024 - 4

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Charging into the Future with EV Battery Testing
Electrification is the future of transportation. The number of electric vehicles on the road has increased in recent years and will only continue
to grow as demand increases worldwide. With new regulations aimed at enhancing the safety and sustainability of batteries, testing is a
stringent requirement for EV manufacturers. How can EV manufacturers ensure their vehicles as well as all components are safe, reliable, and
compliant with safety regulations? Joining us today is Darryl Fleger, VP and Global Head of Automotive Services at TÜV SÜD, who will discuss
the current trends in EV battery testing and solutions to address the challenges associated with it.
Battery & Electrification Technology: What are some of the critical
tests manufacturers need to perform to ensure batteries are safe?
Darryl Fleger: Manufacturers are heavily
focused right now on thermal propagation,
crush, overcharge, short circuit, and fire
resistance. Now, when we push these tests
to their limits, they get pretty exciting.
Often, they end in a thermal event, which
can be a little scary, but pushing these batteries
to their limits allows engineers, to see
what happens and add additional measures
needed to keep people safe. On the performance side, vibration,
shock, extreme environments, and lifecycle
tests are used to ensure proper
functionality. Basically, the industry
won't thrive if EVs aren't reliable and
have good driving range. Therefore,
manufacturers, to validate their performance
will know they're putting a good
product on the market. In the end, this
will create a good driving experience
for customers, and that will drive the
industry.
B&ET: What is new for EV battery
regulations and how will it affect automotive
manufacturers?
Fleger: The hot topic in 2024 is the new
European battery regulation. The regulation
covers safety, but it really pushes
manufacturers to be sustainable. For
TÜV SÜD, this means building up more expertise for things like
carbon footprint and recycle content audit. Ultimately, if battery
manufacturers want to ship any products to Europe, they'll need to
meet all these requirements. I think it's only a matter of time before
regulations like this are adopted globally. So, we all need to prepare
for these sustainability requirements.
B&ET: What are the advantages of using third-party testing?
Fleger: Well, that's always a big topic that we discuss with engineering
managers. Managers always balance out the cost of insourcing
versus outsourcing. Battery manufacturers will always keep some
amount of testing internal because they like to have their R&D and
intellectual property work kept in house, but usually it makes sense
to outsource safety tests, abuse tests, and critical performance
tests. Reputable third-party labs like TÜV SÜD provide impartial
and unbiased test results. I always tell customers they should focus
on their core business of manufacturing and let TÜV SÜD focus on
4
being the testing experts, especially when it comes to these dangerous
tests.
B&ET: TÜV SÜD recently opened a new energy vehicle lab (NEV
Lab) in Auburn Hills, MI. What kind of testing capability does the
lab have and how will services develop in the future?
Fleger: We are very proud of our Auburn Hills facility, many years in
the making, with the teams around the world. It's a state-of-the-art
new energy vehicle test center and incorporates all of our lessons
learned from our Canadian, Chinese, and European labs. We have five
large safety bunkers. We can test anything from battery cells right
through to full vehicles. The bunkers provide a safe environment
for engineers to push batteries to their
limits. And when they do hit their limits,
we've got a state-of-the-art scrubbing
system, to make sure no toxic smoke
or chemicals go into the atmosphere.
We also have a first-of-its-kind electrodynamic
multi-axis shaker system. We
installed a 350 kN vibration table, which
is one of the biggest in the industry. So,
we can handle the big batteries such as
truck batteries. We can also test service
bundles like advanced electronics and
other vehicle components. So, it's really
a new energy vehicle lab, not just a
battery lab. We can test almost all the
components within an EV.
B&ET: What are the future trends and
concerns in electrification?
Fleger: The big race is obviously for manufacturers to get higher
energy densities, reduce the cost of the batteries, and have really
fast charging time. This means pushing the limits for safety and
manufacturing. From our perspective, this means we're constantly
having to overcome the challenges of these new technologies, add
equipment and more training. In parallel with that, hydrogen is
moving up faster and faster. So, every upgrade that we put into the
battery lab we think about: Can this be adopted by hydrogen applications?
Can we use those investments to test hydrogen products
in the future? It's the most exciting time to be in the industry. So
many changes and opportunities, and I think the next 10 years will
just be a constant change and development for the manufacturers.
Watch the full interview with Darryl Fleger
Battery & Electrification Technology, May/June 2024

Battery & Electrification Technology - May/June 2024

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